Attempted Reprieve For Nant Silyn Fails Amid ‘Shambolic’ Meeting

Wrexham’s final council owned care home is to close despite a final attempt by some councillors to have the decision reviewed.

The initial decision to close Nant Silyn was made earlier this month, when members of the Executive Board unanimously voted in favour of closing the facility and ‘reinvesting’ over £190,000 into preventative services. The Council says the care home, which had 29 beds and seven permanent residents, costs £875,000 per year to run – with the meeting told today that it cost £738 per bed per week at Nant Silyn. This is in comparison to just over £500 in the private sector.

However the decision to decommission the care home was met with fierce criticism from opposition parties in Wrexham Council, with seven councillors ‘calling in’ the decision on the basis that alternative methods to keep the facility open had not been explored.

As a result of the call-in, the report was today debated by members of Safeguarding, Communities and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee. If the call in was successful the decision would then likely to have ended up at the Executive Board again, where a u-turn would have been required to have kept it open.

The meeting began with around 15-20 minutes debate over how the overall debate itself should be held – with some councillors objecting to Chairman Bill Baldwin’s method of chairing the meeting.

Councillors who signed the call-in were told to nominate a spokesperson, which was met with strong opposition from several councillors, with Cllr Malcolm King telling the Chairman he was ‘inventing this’ rule.

However Cllr Baldwin noted there are guidelines and changing those were at the Chair person’s discretion, and later responded on twitter to criticism that the meeting was ‘shambolic’ saying the rules had been stated in advance:

@ArfonJ @wrexhamcbc fully explained in advance

— William Baldwin (@77bew) November 3, 2015

Cllr Dana Davies, who was nominated spokeswoman for those who had signed the call-in notice, told the committee the decision to close ‘Nant Silyn means we are putting all our eggs into one basket’.

Cllr Davies added: “When we have a service like Nant Silyn already there with capacity to deliver respite and residential care, why are we using public money to buy in same service from independent and private sector. Why are we using public money twice?

“If we didn’t have to buy that in, then that is where the saving is. Rather than close and making savings towards £45million and also have the flexibility to reinvest the £195,000 into preventative services. Why don’t we take that out of our commissioning contracts?

“The decision to close Nant Silyn means we are putting all our eggs into one basket. If that decision is being made, we need to test the capacity we have got in the Independent and Private Sector.

“There is predicted growth in Wrexham over the next few years. We don’t want to just be planning for today, we need to plan for the future.”

However the decision to close the care home was defended by Lead Member for Adult Health and Social Care, Cllr Joan Lowe, who noted that a ‘bed at Nant Silyn is more expensive then a bed purchased in independent sector’.

Cllr Lowe added: “Utilising Nant Silyn would never release savings or efficient. Decommissioning would release those resources which we need to reinvest in a broader range of community based preventative services. The Social Services and Wellbeing Act imposes on all local authorities a duty to impose preventative services.”

“Service users and their families have choice of which home to go to and where they want to live or have respite care from. Choice is the most important factor in this.”

Cllr Lowe went onto say: “There is a change in demographic with people over 65 and 85, and has been happening for past 10 years. The focus on Adult Social Care has been to reshape and focus their services, this is the direction we have had from Welsh Government. Older people wish to stay in their own homes in their own communities.”

Concerns over bed blocking were also raised, with Cllr Brian Cameron stating: “Given the need for residential and respite care, why are people turned away when we know there is bed blocking at the Wrexham Maelor. If beds were utilised, we wouldn’t have paid twice for independent and our own Nant Silyn.”

Cllr Lowe asked: “How do you know those people who are bed blocking and what their requirements are? They may need nursing care which is why they can’t move on. There is plenty of room for residential care for people to have a facility offered to them.

“People have a simple choice, even if they were to go into residential home, if there wasn’t room within the one they chose, they cannot be made to go into any. People often sit in hospital as there isn’t room in the care facility of their choice. They cannot be made to move to any.”

Cllr Rodney Skelland, who was Lead Member in 2006 when Nant Silyn first faced closure said: “I was lead member in 2006 and it was scrutinised to death. It was agreed across all political groups that we close Llys Madoc, I’m not sure what resolution was for Nant Silyn.

“Personally I think it’s regrettable but the way forward. Are the council providers or enablers?”

However concluding the argument, Cllr Davies said: “I’m still not convinced by the argument that we’ve got the capacity within Independent and Private Sector. I agree it is extremely fragile, but it does worry me in the next five years if there is in any fluctuation, we could see crisis management.

“I also have a concern about respite care. Speaking to all care homes last week there was no real appetite for respite in the private sector. These people are in business to see a return. I appreciate though residential care isn’t an option for everyone.”

The final vote on whether the report should be referred back to the Executive Board was somewhat a muddled one – with two recommendations put forward and seconded, however there appeared to be some confusion over what was being voted for and when.

A recommendation to refer the report back to the Executive Board was defeated by six councillors to two, meaning despite the ‘call-in’, the decision to close the care home stands firm.